Qi wireless under threat from rival Power Matters Alliance, who get another partner

Pull up to the fire, its history time. We’ve had different formats and standards fighting for relevancy as long as there has been technology. Betamax vs. VHS and HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray are some that jump out at us. Right now we’re in the midst of a battle between two standards for wireless charging – Qi from the Wireless Power Consortium and Power 2.0 from the Power Matters Alliance. If you’re rocking a Windows Phone like the Nokia Lumia 920 or the HTC 8X you’re part of the Qi bandwagon.

Any reason to worry about your standard losing out in the long run? Maybe, Power Kiss just went and joined the Power Matters Alliance.

Power Kiss (we saw them at Mobile Wold Congress) has been one of the earliest companies completely centered on wireless charging technologies. They were founded back in 2008 and launched their first product, the Ring, in 2010. The Ring is a device that you connect to your smartphone to give it the ability to wireless charge. They made different mounts for different devices. You had one with a microUSB connection for most smartphones (above), a 2mm Nokia specific one, and another for Apple devices. The company is also notable for installing their charging stations at cafes, restaurants, hotels, corporate lobbies and other places across Europe. At least 1000 places have a Power Kiss wireless charging spot and you can add select McDonalds locations to that list.

About five days ago, the company announced that they would be joining the Power Matters Alliance (PMA). That puts the Power Kiss with AT&T, Starbucks, Duracell, and others on the list of companies on the board at the PMA. Maija itkonen, CMO and Founder, states a few factors for becoming a member:

"The PMA system has a unique layer of 'Telco Grade' intelligence that allows venues to monitor the health, usage and policies of all their charging spots. Secondly, we believe the PMA now enjoys the momentum and the necessary investment from major industry players to bring wireless power to life for consumers. This makes PMA a natural choice for PowerKiss. Finally, PMA offers a trusted and truly open framework that everyone can feel comfortable adopting."

So should you be worried that Power Kiss joined the Power Matters Alliance? Yes and no. While the company joined the PMA and will be upgrading existing and future installations to be PMA compliant, they aren’t dropping support for Qi. In a tweet aimed at Nokia’s own Doug Dawson, Power Kiss stated their continued support for Qi with no plans on ditching and remaining standards agnostic. So that’s good news for Qi, but at the same time a competing standard did gain another prominent member which makes them a formidable opponent for the adoption of Qi.

Another thing to consider is Apple. Up above we mentioned the big names behind the Power Matters Alliance and their Power 2.0 initiative. But which companies are on board with Qi and the Wireless Power Consortium? Obviously Nokia and HTC, but you can add Huawei, LG Electronics, Motorola Mobility, Sony and Samsung to that list. Obviously Qi has a lot going for it at the moment, but Apple could completely change that by joining the PMA as it’s currently rumored.

It'll be interested to see how the wireless charging space plays out over this year and the following. Could two standards coexists side by side? Or will we have one clear winner?

Could two standards coexists side by side? Or will we have one clear winner?

There at least were rumours of TI manufacturing chips supporting both standards, which would essentially make this a non-issue. As also mentioned in the article, Power Kiss will update all their existing devices to support PMA standard. An announcement such as this suggests that the investment to upgrade the existing hardware to support additional standard is negligible. Thus, for manufacturers of wireless charging appliances (e.g. tables, counters, sofas, etc.) will with some likelihood make their products compatible with both standards, till there is a clear winner.

I think that with PMA essential element of its Power 2.0 is the software that enables devices to charge. It is difficult to say how different the final technical solutions of PMA and WPC (Qi) are, but if same devices can be used for both (as Power Kiss clearly states) it is highly unlikely that they use technology that different from one another. Thus, it is somewhat different than, say, VHS v Betamax as those called for entirely different technology.

The problem from my opinion is what will places like coffee shops adopt.
I think that ends up being the driving force honestly. I had thought they would adopt whatever was in the phones, but currently they seem to be lining up with PMA.

Of course the further headache is going to be confusion for the consumers, who will see PowerMats in Starbucks and not know their S4's or Lumnia don't work on them.

That's only a portion of what will make a difference. I dint know anyone who goes into coffee shops for more than 10 mins. One can say whatever choice the movie theaters adapt, or whatever choice the mall food courts adapt, or whatever one my job adapts.

While this news is all fun and giggles, you shouldn't rule out QI so quickly. Sure, some companies went to the opposition, but Samsung has implemented the QI wireless charging in the SGS4 (not both versions of the S4, but still). So sure Apple could go PMA but there are way more SGS devices sold then iPhones (of which the older versions without the wireless charging will be popular for a while too), so even if Apple moves away, it doesn't really matter.
Currently there aren't any phones available which feature PMA as far as i can see. They all have accessories that need to be plugged in before you can wirelessly charge. That doesn't really look like a big deal to me. Having in it in the phone without any problems is way better then having to put a ring on it (lol).

I'm not sure it really matters which side wins. Future Nokia handsets will be fitted with the "winning" standard. Only someone that goes out and spends a lot of money outfitting their home, car and office with the "losing" standard will be the loser. By the time one becomes a winner, we'll all be looking at new Nokia models. A lot of the people with 920s got them at AT&T along with a "free" (yes, I know I have to many air quotes) wireless charger, so we didn't necessarily pay extra.
That's the worst case scenario in my mind. There still a good chance that Qi wil be put into vehicles and to me that's the biggest application (next to the nightstand at home). We change phones a lot more frequently than we change video playing appliances.

It will be interesting to see which standard wins. Samsung and HTC supporting Qi is important. Get all the major car manufacturers to support Qi and you've given yourself the edge.

With that being said I want to know what are the major advantages to PMA. It sounds more like Duracell wants to get a bigger piece of the profit by supporting the standard that requires you to buy more hardware to accomplish Wireless charging.

Apple will create their own standard and come up with some bs reasons why it is superior so they can charge their customers more money. Tis the apple way. It would be great to see QI succeed, but as long as Nokia (and other companies which stay on the WP bandwagon) succeed, then we will have enough QI products to meet our needs

It makes sense that Apple would choose the "other" standard. It also makes sense they will come up with their own deriviation that forces others to pay them some licensing to use it. While a couple of years ago any standard Apple chooses could win, it's not the case rigfht now.
If the Android OEMs keep using Qi, that will be the standard. Just like micro USB is the standard for chargers. and just ilke micro USB, it will be a shock if Apple adopted what everybody else was using

"The PMA system [...] that allows venues to monitor the health, usage and policies of all their charging spots." I believe that is the big deal. "All the better to track you...I mean help you charge your device" says AT&T in grandma's bed robe.